There are few things that can ruin a season faster than losing the best player on the team and worse when said player is the person the owner drafted first. Giancarlo Stanton was placed on the 15-day DL with a broken hamate bone in his left wrist and while the injury normally takes 4-6 weeks the Miami Marlins have decided to keep him out indefinitely to ensure good health. The fact the team has not been doing very well this year helps this decision quite a bit. For owners this is devastating, or amazing depending on what side of the fence that owner is on, and today we try to find a to help owners recover. Spoilers there are not.

While it is no secret how good Stanton was doing this year let us take a look at his numbers to show owners something truly scary, Stanton was having an off year. Yes reader I said an off year with 27 home runs is hard to believe but lets look at his numbers. Stanton currently has his career worst K% at 30% and his career worst BB% at 10.7% combining this with his career worst contact rate of only 65%, meaning he made contact with the ball only 65% of the time as opposed to his career 68%, just shows he had his struggles. Sharp eyed owners will notice however that most of his struggles came in the first month of the season which shows just how good Stanton has been since then.

Enough about what Stanton has been doing, at this point we are all aware of how good he was doing, but the question every owner has is how to replace him and that is a simple answer but not a good one for owners. Sadly owners will not be able to replace that level of production and will just have to work with what they have available which luckily is could still be enough till he gets back. The area that will be hurt the most is power so the best available player for most owners is a name that has been touched on before. Steven Souza Jr. of the Tampa Bay Rays (56.1% owned in ESPN leagues) could be the perfect filler for owners that need that power now at the sacrifice of batting average or OBP. He is a poor mans Stanton in many ways but does not do everything nearly as well as Stanton, expect striking out he is really good at that. Be warned that he has a chance to hurt other areas on any owner’s team so have a good contact hitter to sure up Souza’s weaknesses. Marlon Byrd of the Cincinnati Reds may hurt owners as much as Souza but he does provide some cheap power at a cost to other areas. Personally I would suggest owners pass on Byrd who is in the twilight of his career and the negatives may not out-weigh the power he provides.

Andre Ethier of the Los Angeles Dodgers is a name that most owners have forgotten at this point and for good reason but with 10 home runs in 213 AB’s he is also owned in only 38.4% of leagues makes him more accessible to owners in deeper leagues. So far Ethier is actually having a decent season and of the three mentioned is, on the outside anyway, the most balanced player that may not hurt owners as much as the other two. Other names to consider are Dexter Fowler (54.3%) of the Chicago Cubs, Shin-Soo Choo (49.0%) of the Texas Rangers, Chris Coghlan (8.4%) also of the Chicago Cubs.